Trapped in a world he is not designed to cope with, Dave-El (the true Kryptonian name of alleged Earth creature David Long) writes about comics, Doctor Who, politics and whatever damned thing pops into his unbalanced mind.

Friday, October 21, 2016

Wrath and Ruin: The 3rd Clinton-Trump Debate or I Love the Smell of Burnt Feathers and Cordite

Hi there! By the time this posts on Friday, we will have had a little more than a day to cope with the horror we witnessed on Wednesday. I mean everyone's talking about it.

You know, that really scary ass episode of American Horror Story! I heard some real messed up shit went down!

Oh, and there was the third Presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Pretty much the same thing could be said about that.

So how did things go?

Well, they could've rerun the first debate because we got the same outcome. Although it did seem the journey to get to that same outcome was far nastier.

Clinton was once again armed with facts and details with a few political bon mots to awkwardly toss in. She dodged some pointed questions about conflicts of interest between the State Department and the Clinton Foundation as well as some text from a speech where she appeared to promote open borders. That's not going to help her with the Crooked Hillary crowd. But nothing's ever going to help her with that crowd.

But for the most part Clinton was in control and focused on her message while getting under Trump's skin. And damn she's gotten really good at that.

Like the first two debates, Donald Trump started off strong but couldn't go the distance.

("Tell me about it," says Melania Trump. Hey-O!)

Mostly Donald blustered through his usual stump speech material and using the word "disaster" too fucking much. Seriously everything is an extreme absolute. Everything is a TOTAL DISASTER and THE WORST DECISION EVER MADE.

Trying to sort through all of Donald's lies and general stupidity would take all day. But there were at least two key points that have to set a new low in low.

One was Donald's snide interjection of "what a nasty woman" directed towards Hillary. Yeah, that'll help bolster that support from women.

The other was his refusal to say that he will accept the results of the election if he loses. It was a moment that really got a lot of people's attention.

I think Chris Wallace did OK, trying to run a tight debate. He was dissed pre-debate for saying he wasn't going to be a fact checker during the debate. But that didn't stop Wallace from challenging both candidates on prior statements that were shaky or outright untrue.

Still, Wallace couldn't quite shake his Fox News roots. For example, his question to Clinton based on the assertion that the 2009 Obama stimulus led to only 1% GDP. Given the stagnant economic conditions of the country at time, most economists believe that recovery and growth would've been worse without the stimulus.

Chris Wallace did throw the candidates a curveball. Apparently closing statements weren't part of the deal but Chris decided they should give one anyway for 1 minute.

Hillary Clinton looked into camera and made an impassioned appeal (well as "impassioned" as she can get) for what she wants for America.

Donald Trump used his minute to remind us our country is a giant cesspool of doom.

In the end, Clinton mostly did no harm while Trump came away smoldering and looking even less like a President.

Please let this be over soon. Hell, I would consider the earth being slammed by a giant meteor as a positive outcome if it would make this election nightmare end.